artistic

I recently started reading a book written about Jack Ma and the creation of Alibaba which is one of the worlds largest online marketplaces. In reading about Jack and his enterprise I came across a couple examples of Ma’s definition of Success that I found to be very grounded, practical, and livable by anyone where he really took that point of success and boiled it down into something tangible, and accessible to everyone.

What I find interesting is that I have been deliberately working with the process of Re-defining and Living Words, and here this man actually did exactly this by coming up with his personal definition of Success that he could live and apply in his world in a way that supported him.

In the book, Ma defined it as follows,

“Success lies not in how much you have accomplished, but in the fact that you have done something, experienced the process, and begun to learn something”

What I like about this definition is it emphasizes not an outcome of good or bad, success or failure, but of THE ACT, the point of taking action and actually doing something – That is the success, the fact that you got off your but and applied yourself.

For me, I have been slowly starting to develop a new body of artwork and so I really relate to this definition of success because for me the most difficult part often is just getting up and DOING SOMETHING, or motivating myself to sit down in front of my canvas and start painting. Where that very action IS the success, not the outcome, but the ACT.

So here I see for myself that to be more successful requires me to take more action. On paper it looks easy, though I do understand that applying and living this definition of success may bring up other dimensions for me to consider and work out.

Okay that’s the point I wanted to Share!

DIP Lite – Free Online Course to get you started with learning the Tools of Self SupportDIP PRO -A Desteni Course for those Ready to Walk the Journey of a LifetimeSOUL – The School of Ultimate Living is an online community of people interested in
discovering and developing their utmost potentialeqafe.com – Invest in a wide range of Interviews and Support yourself to Self PerfectionJourney To Life Blogs – Read the blogs from those walking the 7 year journey to life.Self and Living – Practical Living Support To Live to Your Utmost Potential

The other day I was admiring some artwork by one of my favorite life painters (John Singer Sargent) and I wondered to myself if this artist had ever written anything about his techniques of how to paint as surely I could learn something from this.

I ended up finding an article put together by someone about this artist and the accounts by his pupils that had the opportunity to learn from him. There wasn’t so much direct written words by the artist but rather accounts recalled by these students of what the artist taught them. The article also drew from a few various other references to comprise this commentary about the artists techniques, style, and approach to painting.

In my life right now, I have been practicing and developing my own ability, and understanding of what it means to Live Words as a process of Personal Self Creation. And I was also recently looking at this specifically in relation to how I go about creating and developing my artwork.

Now with my landscape paintings, one word that I have been practicing for the past 3 years is the word ‘value’. The context I am describing the word ‘value’ here is specifically related to color theory where ‘value’ is referring to dark and light.

But the interesting thing I noticed is that everyday I go out to do a painting, this word ‘value’ is at the fore of my attention and is what I am working with and practicing as I construct my painting.

And it has been the primary word for the past 2 or 3 years.

So after reading the abovementioned article, I took away a few words and points that I could now introduce the next time I went painting.

The words were

Mid-tones

Thicker paint

Blending lines

Each one of these words/phrases were defined in the article in more detail/description so I had an idea how I would go about implementing them into my painting.

So I went out painting soon after and I began to introduce some of these words into my painting.

The first painting I did after reading the article had some new dimensions emerging in it which I could visibly see, meaning where the painting actually looked different from my previous paintings.

Then earlier today I went out and began another painting and I was surprised with the results of implementing these new words/phrases into my expression.

For me it was eye opening to see how reading a simple article on painting and then taking some of that information and “Living It” within the context of implementing it into the painting could have such a drastic affect.

I cannot recall ever learning that way even though I read quite a lot in art school about various different artists and techniques.

So I just thought this was a cool dimension of the “Living Words” process of Self Creation that I have been developing for myself these past few months.

Now another interesting questions that comes up here is how else can I live these words? Meaning, not where it is applied and Lived only in my painting but also in my life and myself.

With my painting, I had practiced living primarily one single word only over and over and over for nearly 3 years. And my paintings slowly progressed. Then suddenly I introduced more words into the process, and suddenly the paintings became more dynamic and took on new dimensions and had a new kind of life to them.

So perhaps this is the lesson to take away from this with regards to my own process of Self Creation through Living Words.

The lesson that if I never introduce any new words to Live and Become and practice Expressing as myself in my day to day life. That I will just always be the same, and in a way become stagnant. But within introducing new words, suddenly there is more life, more expression, more dynamics.

So here I can take the lesson I learned with my paintings and apply it to myself and my life and remember to introduce new Words into and as my process of Living Words/Self Creation as a point of developing and expanding and not just getting stuck living the same words over and over again.

SOUL – The School of Ultimate Living is an online community of people interested in
discovering and developing their utmost potentialeqafe.com – Invest in a wide range of Interviews and Support yourself to Self PerfectionJourney To Life Blogs – Read the blogs from those walking the 7 year journey to life.Self and Living – Practical Living Support To Live to Your Utmost PotentialDIP Lite – Free Online Course to get you started with learning the Tools of Self SupportDIP PRO -A Desteni Course for those Ready to Walk the Journey of a Lifetime

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to believe that if I do not do art that I will not enjoy myself, and so have in a way manipulated myself with fear to not consider expanding myself within the context of developing other skills that would suppor me in this world.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to hold onto an idea that I formed when I was in my teenage years about “being an artist” and that I have accepted and allowed that idea that I formed in my past, influence and direct me now in my thirities where I become gripped with fear at the thought of “not doing art” or “changing my relationship to art” or that I will go into reaction which has inhibited my ability to consider expanding myself into other areas, any time I start to consider something outside the context of this idea of who I am in relation to art and being an artist that I formed when I was younger.

I forgive myself that I haven’t accepted and allowed myself to live as the Artist and actually within this, be flexible and expressive within my expression like an artist is supposed to be where in this, I allow myself to change my relationship with art and to reform this relationship in a way that more suits the context of my life now, and what I have realized and understood about myself, the world, and my life, now, and thus to ultimately reform this relationship into one that is based within what is best for all and so thus which I see is ultimately a priority reorganization.

When and as I see myself reacting within myself and I see that this reaction is related to when ever I am considering something that would threaten this “idea” I have formed about who I am in relation to art and about being an artist , I stop and I breath, I realize that these reactions are actually inhibiting me from really expanding myself within my expression within this world, and that it is necessary for me to actually reform my relationship with Art, and to within this align this point, this relationship, so that it stand within the context of what is best for all.

I see, realize, and understand that I have not actually done this, but that I am still accepting and allowing myself to be influenced and manipulated and go into reactions towards my current accepted idea/perception of Art based on the ideas, perceptions, dreams that I formed in relation to this when I was quite young. And so I commit myself to assist and support myself to reform my relationship to art/doing art so that this relationship stand within the context of what is best for all. I see that there is still aspects/parts of my relationship towards art that I am living that is standing within and as Self Interest that is actually compromising myself within my world, as I am not accepting and allowing myself to expand myself and my expression within the context of what is best for all in ways that actually support me to stand within the context of what is best for all.

I would now like to take the time to bring through an important aspect of Art and Artists that has actually been missed in this world.

I am certain that many of you reading this have at some point in your lives come across the phrase “we are all artists” or simply, the point that for instance everybody has their unique talent or gift and are creative and thus an Artist in their own right where this term should not only be designated to describe for instance the painter standing at the easel, but to also encompass the artistry in all walks of life. Now, I am actually not here to talk about this. This is not what I mean by “We Are ALL Artists”

What I would like to bring through into the awareness of individuals is the actuality of how we are all in fact Artists and that our current accepted and allowed definition of art does not/has not encompassed this understanding and so thus is currently operating in a very limited sphere of potential. And so I am here support the expansion of this definition of what it means to be an Artist because our current version of an Artist really fail in comparison to this new dimension I am about to begin introducing and that from my perspective is what really should be considered and lived by all in terms of bringing our current accepted view/definition of ‘artists’ into a new application, expression and living that will overall enhance ourselves and our living reality actually in a much more substantial way than how what our current accepted definition of art/artists is doing which is more and more becoming merely a point of entertainment and decoration than really enhancing our lives on earth.

Ok so what needs to be understood and considered is the Creative Process of ‘Self Creation’. Here each one stand as their own Artist in the process of creating themselves individually and so thus collectively the world as a whole.

From this perspective we are all actually Artists as we all carry the exact same responsibility act and ability of Self Creation.

One point I became aware of a few years ago which has now become more clear, is the relationship between who I am and what I create as my external art pieces such as paintings, sculptures, drawings etc. Now, I just so happened to fall into our current definition of what an ‘artist’ is, however don’t be distracted by this. The relationship is the same with everyone in terms of who they are in relation to what they create or essentially how they express, move, apply themselves in their external lives, the fundamental creative process actually being the process of self creation of who one is and how they exist within and as themselves where from there they then go on to become a doctor or an artist or a cook and express themselves through that particular skill providing various products and services.

What is being missed is the actual process of Self Creations as the process within which one actually creates themselves inside themselves moment by moment breath by breath.

We all have the same tools, we have the physical body, we have the mind, we have our thoughts. We have the words we speak, we have our actions, ect. When we are born we are given our canvas like a blank slate and then as we grow we begin the process of creating ourselves just like an Artist would start from nothing and paint a masterpiece. The problem is, if we really look at who we are and who we have created ourselves to be on an individual level there is no masterpieces that is actually existing. We have created ourselves within all kinds of patterns of abuse, judgements, deficiencies, limitations, deceptions, maxims that only serve self interest, fears, Jealousies, insecurities, conflict, anger, ect… And as a result, the world around us then thus take on this mold as well as we imprint and essentially duplicate who we are as individuals, and thus as a collective into and onto and as this world as the exact reflection of who we are.

Now its fascinating if you look at what actually exist in this world and the atrocities that are everywhere. I mean even taking the most obvious form of abuse and conflict such as war which is the biggest industry in the world, and so how could one logically defend themselves and say “I have not contributed to this”? And this is another point of awareness which we as individuals must start to develop is the relationship we have with our external reality in ALL its parts and how we are contributing to that on an individual ‘inner’ level. For instance if we really have a look at the nature of our thoughts on a day to day level or the nature of our experience. I mean if one really Self Honesty look at ones experience within themselves it is not actually roses and smiley faces, there is actually at times allot of frustration or friction or inner conflict, thus essentially an inner war. Now I am not saying its like this all the time, though I find many can relate to what I am describing as ones inner experience that at times they find themselves within.

We are all artists and we are creating ourselves in every moment as we decide what we participate within ourselves which then become a part of what we express and live in our lives.

I realized that when ever I made a piece of art that it was always an exact reflection of who I am and that is ultimately in essence what I would be placing out there into the world. That for me, was the real ‘soul’ of my art, so to speak. This “who I am” is the real ‘soul’ that was infused into all my art pieces and was my REAL MESSAGE that I was Living. In realizing this, I realize the importance of Self Change and Taking Responsibility for myself and creating myself in a way that is really honoring and contributing to Life in fact, because that is what I would prefer to have as the essence of my art that I create as the absolute exact reflection of who I am.

Art today is beside the point, it is in a way irrelevant compared to the actual real Creative Process that each of us is responsible for as the process of Self Creation on an Individual Level that is taking place in every moment, with each beat of our heart. This is where Real Artistry exist, and we are all equal in this.

Thus we must shift our attention and focus and awareness and bring into the fold this new dimension of what it means to be an Artist, because in this way we are ALL Standing on an Equal Platform from which to express ourselves as Artists in really supporting ourselves to first start to develop an awareness of how we are actually creating ourselves from moment to moment.

I mean, so much of this “Self Creative” process we have allowed to happen in a way automatically where we were not actually ‘HERE’ and Self Aware in this Self Creation Process, and so this is the point that we all must start to ALIGN within ourselves and getting to the point of Taking Complete Responsibility for our Self Creation Process in how we are creating ourselves in every moment. At this stage it’s like one day we wake up and I’ts like “how the fuck did I become this?” “How did I get here?” were are yet not at the same time of how we actually end up in the lives we find ourselves in. its like we created ourselves but we didn’t really know what we were doing and so it just kind of happened without us being a part of that process at all, and we end up later in life stuck in patterns that we developed early on in life that we did not really understand how such points would play-out later in life and create various different problems.

No more is the term/definition of “Artist” limited to just a fraction of the population. Rather let’s get down to business and bring this new dimension of ‘Art’ and what it means to be an ‘Artist’ into the Fold and thus start to actually bring some Real Substance and Value into the meaning of an Artist. So here we are expanding our understanding of what it means to be an Artist to where now it encompass Everyone on the planet. This point is critical. We actually REQUIRE each and every single individual here to actually start moving themselves as an Artist in the process of Self Creation and really learning how we are creating ourselves and our reality. Everyone has an equal role to play as they are occupying a space/point in our planet and thus is actually standing/existing as that ‘creative force’ if you will. As that “Creation Mechanism” The medium is no more paint on canvas, it is the components of the human being, of the physical flesh, the mind, the thoughts, the physical body. That which we all use as our components with which we create who we are and what is here as life, in other words, how we create our reality.

If we want our world as a whole to be a masterpiece, we must first start with ourselves and create ourselves into our own masterpieces.

So, I make paintings, but that is not the real art, that is not the real creative process, that is a skill I learned, like plumbing, or engineering, or teaching, the real artistic expression is the process of self creation that comes before the fact and is actually happening in every moment. That point has been missed. My Artistic Ability, just as the Artistic Ability of each one is actually existent on a much more fundamental level of our existence than we have considered. And it is here, within the Self-Creation Process that the Value of Artistic Expression integral to all human beings exist.

Now the next important question here is how then do we create ourselves. How then do we become participants and directors of our own creative process. Its like, so far we have allowed this process to be automated and so for instance allowed something like media and entertainment and popular culture guide and direct us and become our foundation in our process of self creation. Now we must Stand within a point of Directing Ourselves and our own Self Creation Process…But how? How do we do this if we have never done it before. Its like “what do I aim for” So in my next blog I will introduce/explore the point of what can be utilized within this process of Self Creation in terms of guidelines and principles that will assist and support self with becoming the best that one can be, this, ensuring that once one decide to take Self Responsibility for themselves and their Self Creation Process that they actually do this I a way where they really do create themselves and this world into a Living Masterpiece.

Today I was out working on some landscape paintings. I see myself as still in the ‘practice’ stage of my ‘career’ in terms of landscape paintings even though I have done hundreds of them.

I discovered some cool things today and from my perspective a key ingredient to being able to become proficient in this point is simply TIME. I must put in the time. I have been busy with my Job and so only have an opportunity to do landscapes on the weekends normally.

Anyways, today I did 3 paintings. 1 more complete one and 2 sketches. I found that in the more complete painting that I really spent the first hour painting the painting and then the last hour more just bouncing around in it and tweaking things and doing a more ‘trial and error’ type application which is not so cool actually.

So its like for the first hour I am deliberate and specific and precise and directed with my movements where as I went into the last hour I allowed myself be vague and imprecise in my application.

So this is a point I must work on. I must NOT allow myself to make a brush stroke that I am not 100 percent satisfied and ready to place. I mean with the color mixing I just kind of let it go out the window and I go into the “good enough” point instead of remaining in Exactness with my application.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to not be specific when I am painting where I will allow myself to place a brushstroke that I am not absolutely 100 percent directed with.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to place a brushstroke when I am painting that I am uncertain about, where I am placing it more as a “what if” and a “lets see what happens” instead of ensuring that I am moving/directing myself in absolute certainty, because I find when I place something that I do not understand, it becomes lost and now is influencing the entire painting but I don’t know how to correct it because I do not understand how it is “going wrong” because when I placed it, I was in a way ignorant of it and blind to it where I did not understand the information I was working with before I place it (the brushstroke)

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to after I have been painting for an hour or so, or sometimes this even happen in the beginning, to not breathe and make sure that I am 100 percent satisfied with the information I am placing before I place it, and in this I will allow myself to move into a kind of space within myself where I justify me not being deliberate and certain in my direction while I am painting and in doing this end up messing up my painting.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to make decisions/movements in my painting that are not exact, where I actually realize in the moment that the information is not exact but “I won’t/don’t care” and just place it anyways.

When and as I see myself in a moment accepting and allowing myself to access that “lets see what happens” character/space, I Stop and I breathe. I realize that when I allow myself to place brushstrokes in and as this Character/approach that I am not being deliberate and directed and exact in my painting anymore and thus can potentially compromise the entire painting with that one single inexact decision in that moment.

Thus I commit myself to assist and support myself to only place brushstrokes that I am absolutely certain about and to within this make sure that every inch, every millimeter, every portion and part of my painting is exact and I am satisfied with thus, leaving no small part to chance or speculation or hope, but pushing myself to make paintings that are absolutely 100 percent directed, leaving nothing up to chance. So when I am getting to that point/part of the painting where I am confused/find myself confused or uncertain in such moments, I commit myself to assist and support myself to slow myself down and really allow myself to remain Deliberate in my direction with my paintings, ensuring that I do not accept and allow myself to go into the “what if” or “lets see what happens application” but rather assist and support myself to remain EXACT and Directed with EVERY Movement I make/brushstroke I place, even if I really must slow down and find that exact right color I am mixing, and so thus here I allow myself to breathe and slow down and if I need to I can clean my palette or get more paint out, where here I just really assist and support myself the whole time to remain Stable and CLEAR in my direction and application of making a landscape painting. Cleaning my brush when I require, or my pallette when I require and just ensuring that I am always mixing my colors Exactly how I want them and never allowing ‘accidents’ which are deliberate to occur where I noticed that things are just a ‘little out’ but I will ‘let it slide’ because when I let it slide, that marks the potential beginning of the end because then I let the next thing slide and slowly these points accumulate until my palette and my painting is a mess or no more working because “I let things slide” starting with that tiny, seemingly insignificant first point “I let slide”.

In my last few blogs I have been exploring ‘the state of ART’ and in this looking at our current accepted and allowed definition and expression of ART in this world and investigating what points within our current ‘version’ of art requires a Re-Alignment so that ART become an Expression that Support Life within the context of equality and oneness and what is best for all.

So today I was at my Job and the Job actually entails doing art. I noticed a few different points coming up inside me in relation to the art/my approach to it, that definitely only contribute to the abuses prevalent within our current expression/definition of Art. In my last few blogs I had also touched upon the point of ‘Self’ from the perspective of how in our Correction and Purification of our current accepted and allowed definition of ART that we within this Correct and Purify ourselves and essentially it is Ourselves in our own Living Expression that is the source of any dysfunction that exist in this world and so in this case the dysfunctions proliferating within our current expression of ART.

So here I am going to explore some of the relationships as acceptances and allowances that I see within me that I am still LIVING in relation to my expression of art that I realize are not in fact based within Principles aligned with manifesting what is best for all.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to when and as I approach doing art, particularly when and as I approached doing my art piece today, to accept and allow the point of COMPARISON to come up within me as part of my expression of ART, as part of the ingredients that I accept and allow within me to inform what make up my definition and expression of art.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed Comparison to be part of my starting point in doing art, where then it becomes my purpose in art to ‘do better than others’ or ‘be the best’ instead of doing art for myself in a way that is Supportive within the context of what is best for all, like for instance using my application of art as a tool to investigate and learn about myself.

I forgive myself for accepting and allowing myself to ‘want to have the best piece’ and to have accepted and allowed this ‘want’ to become a dominant influence in my expression of myself within doing art where its like this point will keep coming up within me as I am working where I will think about how the other guys are doing and then compare what I am doing to them, where this actually become a constant distraction from me just being HERE in and as Breath expressing myself unconditionally.

I forgive myself that I have accepted and allowed myself to DESIRE to do a really go art piece where this DESIRE is formed in comparison to other artists and all the art that I have seen in my life-time, in various contexts where my application and expression of doing art has been in a way contaminated by this point of Comparison, and the belief that I formed that the purpose of ART is to ‘be better than everybody else’ where this has thus become my ‘approach’ to doing art.

I commit myself to assist and support myself to remove Comparison out of/from my starting point/approach/expression of ART, and to within this assist and support myself to explore ways to express me in ART without going into comparison of what I am doing to others, where I in this start to compete and want to do something better than what they are doing. And so also, I commit myself to assist and support myself to continue working with this point so that I ensure that there exist no more relationships within my approach to doing art that is abusive in nature and thus would produce abusive results

When and as I see myself directing myself in my art in relation to a thought of comparison where I see that the purpose of my direction is abusive and evil in nature such as to simply WIN, to simply be better or be more than others/my peers, I STOP and I breathe. I realize that my Direction in such an instance is being fueled by comparison and essentially greed and self interest and I am here to assist and support myself to Stop such behaviors and applications in my expression of art, and thus to instead align my expression of ART to be Self Supportive and Supportive to Others and LIFE in a way that actually nurture and contribute in ways that is BEST FOR ALL, and so thus, I in that moment STOP and do not accept and allow myself to direct/move myself in relation to comparison, and so thus I in this such moment, Change my starting point and ask myself the question “Is my Direction within what I am doing here best for all?” and “If it is not – Is the direction then Valid?” and “How can I thus change my Direction here so that I am in fact moving myself within Art as an Expression of me where I am really just investigating and exploring and enjoying me without the need to compete or win. And so here I commit myself to investigate and explore how I can Return Art to Innocence in a way and discover how to in fact express myself in ART ways that no more is founded on Self Interest and Inequality. But rather, Self Support, Self Enjoyment, Equality, playfulness, and other points that can be LIVED and EXIST within the context of producing what is best for all and contributing to ourselves as life/human beings to live to our utmost potential.

I am going to pause with my explorations into my Victimization Character and today look at my current more Immediate experience of myself.
The Christmas “holiday” is now over and so I am getting myself back into my “normal routine” I have experienced allot of doubts coming up about Art recently. During the holiday break I decided to just put the art stuff on hold, though over the last few days I have noticed different experiences of doubts and uncertainties starting to move around within me and starting more and more to come up and be present inside me.
One doubt that has emerged is in relation to “Where I will be in the future” with this point, particularly from the perspective of “what will my art look like”, “what kind of art will I be doing” It is interesting because Its like I am wanting to see “what kind of art will make me successful” and then I am trying to “see” that so that “I know what to do” when obviously I see that the way to approach this is to simply DO the Art, and that this will be the best approach to understanding how this point will work, where I see that the effective approach is to “Focus on the Physical” and then seeing and adjusting as I go, but to work with actual tangible stuff, and then testing what paintings/art work or even emerge that I can in no way predict but will only emerge through the actual physical process of doing it. And then I can test to see how those points work on my art shop and simply walk in that manner, one step at a time, adjusting, testing, modifying, specifying, refining as I go.
One point that I have been looking at today is setting up a more consistent application within doing my art from the perspective of having time each day that I dedicate to doing art, where I allow myself to “Explore” within this point, meaning not waiting until I “have something” before I do art but allowing myself to simply just explore if I do not know exactly what I will be doing. In this working into my schedule a point where I am putting Time into the Art daily.
I can see that my experience of myself in relation to this point is in part due to the Christmas break where I was not moving this point, and so the uncertainties had some “room” to start to fester and take root.
I have written about this Art Point before so here tonight have just revisited it just to clarify and solidify some direction with regards to getting myself back into this point since after the Christmas break.

Desteni I Process LITE

Desteni Has launched Desteni I Process Lite. This is a completely free, online course with buddy support. The course material has been designed from the ground up to accommodate complete beginners to the Desteni material. Start the your process of writing yourself to freedom today.